First payment of $475 on HEL due Sept 5.Monthly take home runs $1,700.

Plan is to stash $200-$300/month in savings account. I know this is doable, because I have been spending $700-$800 on mortgage plus cc debt. This way I get to earn a little interest instead of paying a lot of it.

Coincidentally with paying off the mortgage at 10.75% and the high-interest cc's, one at 27% and one at 25% (yikes), I got a CapOne at 14.9%, so I'm covered there if I absolutely need it, but I haven't been using my cc's except for occasional online/catalog purchases immediately paid off for the last 18 months, and I DON'T PLAN TO START USING CC FOR ANYTHING ELSE EVER AGAIN. (The $6,000 is down from $9,000 two years ago.)

I have become addicted to this board in two short weeks, I am in awe of your honesty with each other on a very sensitive subject, the advice and perspective is priceless, and I am also in awe of the determination so many of you show.

Just a question.... What's the point of the "minor spending spree?" You just have to repay the money starting in September. How is that any different than spending friviously on a credit card? Is there something you NEED to make your life a happy one? Is there something you don't already have that you're willing to slow down all your debt elimination progress for?

I know yousaid you enjoy the honesty on this board...so please remember that when you start getting flamed for taking out a HEL to help pay off consumer credit. :P

I don't think they'll get flamed too much; the poster seems to grasp the concept that using a HEL to pay off debt only works if you stop acquiring more debt (using the credit cards and not paying them off every month).

I find that if I don't loosen the reins a little on occasion, I flip out and blow it big time.

So I keep a running list of things that I could really use and when they've been on the list long enough, and haven't popped up in a secondhand store somewhere, then I go ahead.

In this case, that means -replacing the ten-year-old futon on my futon couchbuying a year's worth of bras on sale at Nordstrom's (the size I wear, the expensive ones *really do* make a difference, and the special-order model I like retails at $50, so buying 4 or 5 at Nordstrom's annual sale at $30 each makes sense)replacing some particle board shelves in my kitchen with real kitchen cabinets

These are things I would buy eventually anyway, and splurging on them now helps me keep my mitts off the stash in the bank -

for instance, I *am not* replacing my ten-year old computer, I *am not* using my $2,000 car budget as a down payment on a later model car (my current ride is an 84 pickup with 230,000 miles on the original engine, I'm looking to upgrade to a 1990 rather than 1995), I *am not* replacing any of the thirty-year-old carpeting in my house, I *am not* having a deck put in, I *am not* having a driveway poured, etc.